Beer is light in body and quite funky, mild oaky, decent overall, I like the finish. This beer was barely on my radar before this day, it was on my long long list of top wants, now I have to return to whale hunting.

The beer is a rusty orange color with a half inch or more of white head. Plenty of carbonation left after all these years. The aroma brings citrus hops, earthy notes, funk, basement, yeast. The flavor brings all of the aforementioned attributes, along with ripened fruits. I thought this was a decent beer, but a bit too sweet and earthy. Maybe I was expecting / hoping for something tart and sour. The feel was silky smooth on the palate. It was a treat to sample this long retired beer.

From 04/14/12 notes. Had at the DC Lambic & Sour Tasting thanks to Richard; thanks a lot! This wasn't on my radar but apparently is considered one of the precursors to Yellow Bus, so very interested to try it.

a - Pours a hazy brown orange color with one inch of white head and moderate carbonation evident.

s - Smells of bread, citrus hops, peaches, fruity malts, mangos. Lot more fruit then I was expecting, though not overly sour.

Bottle at the DC Lambic & Sour Tasting on April 14, 2012. Served in a Lost Abbey Teku. Huge thanks to Richard for this one.

Pours a mostly-clear, semi-cloudy golden color with a small-average white head with good retention and quite a bit of lacing on the way down, eventually settling into a nice cap.

The nose brings pretty heavy peach and apricot with a bit of pear in the background. A bit of apricot pit there as well. Touch of earthiness in the background, though not enough to overwhelm the intense fruitiness.

The flavor is loaded with stone fruits and has a nectarine-like bite with white peach notes as well. Average duration with moderate Brett-induced funk. Light bitterness on the back end. The body is light and just a touch chewy with light carbonation and a dry finish.

This was a long-time want of mine and something that I was extremely glad to try. Thanks again, Richard.

Thanks to schmittymack for sharing this one at his 50th birthday party earlier this month. Poured a nice golden color with a huge, rocky white head. Nice tartness on the nose, with aromas of citrus zest, brett and yeast. Medium bodied and tart, with brett, sherry and yeast.

taste is great. vanilla and raw oak again. more caramel and toffee than in the aroma. big orangey citrus - perhaps lots of late cascade? low bitterness level. a bit earthy. a bit fruity. a nice candy sort of sweetness. no sourness.

mouthfeel is good. medium-large body. just under medium carbonation level.

drinkability is great. great balance. nice hoppy character. a great break from the sour beers.

Thanks Mike for bringing this one out! reviewed from notes. Pours a hazy golden with a small white head with decent retention. Smell is citrus, lemony brett and a hint of dough. Taste is lemons, some funky yeast, some light malts, no bitterness at all. Feel is very clean with a medium light body and medium carbonation. I really enjoyed this beer, it has held up very well. Would love to get a chance to try this one again.

Thanks to Mike, bottle into a tulip...Pours a dark dirty blonde with orange highlights. Light white head ok retention and lacing....Aroma is ok, a little blah, a little tartness in the form of lemon zest with some yeast...The taste is pale malt with lemon and brett, a generic descriptiong but this is a pretty generic (typical) golden brett.

An ok brett that is not as good as sancitfication, both similar, neither beer which I would consider great or drink again.

T - Flavor profile is more smoothed out. There's some light oxidation, but this is mostly sweet pale malt, must and earthiness, and a bitter lemon finish from the brett. Still pretty solid despite the age.

Pours dark golden orange and cloudy. Good amounts of fine head with good retention along with plenty of lacing. Aromas of pineapple, papaya, flora, and apricot. Tastes of apricot, flora, brettanomyces style funk and a barnyard finish. Nicely thick for a wild ale with a full but not overbearing amount of carbonation that keeps the brew silk, light, and smooth on the palate. I was excited to try this Pizza Port brew that predates the Lost Abbey, but didn't have huge expectations. Fortunately, this beer is holding up wonderfully and was quite tasty.

A huuuuge thanks to Richard for opening this one at the tasting this past weekend.

A: The pour is a clear, light golden brown color with a fluffy white head.

S: I really had no idea what to expect from this beer, so I gave it a bit sniff to see what I was getting myself into. I got a nose-full of tropical fruits, especially passion fruit. There is a bit of malty sweetness and a noticeable spice and yeast aromas well.

T: The fruit flavors were not quite as bright as in the nose, but still enjoyable. Flavors of passion fruit, pineapple, and mild citrus go well with a mild bitterness. The beer seems to be slightly oxidized (a touch of cardboard), but nothing too terrible. There is an ever so slight brett character, but it does not produce a big funkiness like I was expecting.

M: The body is actually quite full with a moderate to high level of carbonation and a very refreshing crisp, dry finish.

D: I was surprised to see how old this beer really is and how well the flavors have held up. This was a really interesting beer and an interesting concept as well. On the incredibly rare chance I get to try this again, I would gladly do so.

750 ml corked and caged bottle acquired in a trade with Gueuzedude, thank you for giving me the opportunity to try this beer

Pretty sure this was exclusively bottled by Russian River for Michael Jackson's Rare Beer Club a few years ago, and the cost was originally eighteen dollars per bottle

Poured into my Duvel Tulip glass with a murky golden orange color that had an even lighter tint when held up to the light, big 3/4 inch creamy and soapy slightly off white head that stuck around for a good five minutes, nice retention, lacing lasted the entire time

Taste was nothing like I expected, I thought there was going to be a whole lot of sour tartiness right from the get go but I was completely wrong, could not taste any of that the entire time, instead there was lots of caramel malt and some strong pear and sweet apple flavors, brett was more in the smell than the taste, some hoppiness was still present which made me wonder how strong the bitterness was when this was fresh because it was still fairly dry, sweet and chewy yeast, never got the same flavor, let this get very warm and flat to see what tastes came about and pear still dominated with some toffee and other types of sweeter malt, weird combination overall but it worked

Body was very thick and the beer was highly carbonated which turned out to be a good thing, it balanced out the malt that could have potentially been overpowering and too syrupy, sweet and spicy mouthfeel

Could have drank even more of this, finished the bottle by myself no problem, the alcohol is pretty light at 6.7% and it is pretty light on the stomach for the most part, tasxte keeps you coming back for more because each sip was different, went down easy and had scary drinkability

For a wild ale, this one sure was not tarty, I could barely tell if there was any brettanomyces present, I wonder if it just mellowed over time and molded into the other tastes, there was definitely two kinds of yeast and hop varities which surprisingly lasted through all of its age

There was large amounts of sediment forming at the bottom of the bottle meaning that this one is probably getting past its prime, it probably has already but it still tasted good and like nothing else I have tasted yet, highly recommended if you can get your hands on one of these rare bottles, drink immediately after obtaining, my guess there is not much life left

750ml corked and caged bottle acquired through the Michael Jackson Rare Beer Tour in 2006. Cellared for about 7 months and served at just over fridge temperature in a tasting tulip.

Appearance- After a wicked *pop* of the cork, this pours a hazy, incandescent orangy gold... the head rises quite beautifully to a boistrous yet elegant four fingers, slowly reducing to a sudsy, thick mat over about ten minutes. Long, sporadic lacing sticks and then breaks apart inside the glass. Great looking beer.

Smell- Sour cherries, Band-Aids, and Brettanomyces... in that order. For the style, I love it. I can really pick up the malts too, more than usual for a beer created with wild yeasts... points for balance.

Taste- Initially, I receive some nice sourness along the sides of the tongue... the middle is subtle and showcases some bright, grassy hops and barley malt along with the funky, gauze-like character from the yeasts. The aftertaste also mimics a bandage-like quality... not necessarily terrific but definitely appropriate for this style of beer.

Mouthfeel/Drinkability- Upon sipping and filling the oral cavity, the initial slick, active texture becomes a bit raucous and takes the entire mouth by storm... creating a tumultuous environment to fully enjoy the flavors. This beer has its ups and downs, along with an improved softer texture after adding the yeast. Fun and weird, but not dazzling overall.

My group and I got some Synergy at the very ragged end of a full day of brewery touring between Los Angeles and San Diego. Some of us had moderated their intake throughout the day, some had not. I am happy to say that I was in full control of all my senses so I feel can give this beer a fair evaluation.

I always love to see brewers out there on the edge, experimenting and pushing the envelope of what a commercial beer can be. Tomme is definitely one of those brewers and Synergy turns out to be one of those high-concept beers that work. It has tons of earthy almost mushroomy Brett character with a prominent hoppy punctuation and just enough malty backbone to carry it all. It's full of unusual flavors but they are made to work together nicely. The name fits.

This arrived as a pale yellow and orange with a medium head. It's leaving plenty of nice lace.

The smell is like a bag of tropical fruit. Fruits come through very strong, but no one fruit is dominating. The taste starts with a solid malt base and then gives way to light fruit flavors. Apple and pear come through with a host of others. The mouthfeel is somewhat tart while drinkability is extremely good.

Smell- Really not much of any one scent in particular. Maybe some powdered sugar,a tad bit of tartness...some roaming hops.

Taste- The taste on the other hand is very nice. Much sweeter than I was expecting. Really no sour or tart notes in the least. Lots of powdered sugar mixed with a few orange and lemon rind tastes with some tropical fruit flavors as well. Hops are pretty dominant in this brew as well.

Mouthfeel- Medium carbonation, light creamy texture.

Drinkability- Does Wild Ale have a textbook taste? Most I had have been fairly tart. This one was sweet and hoppy. It was a very good brew though. WIsh I had another.

Sampled May, 2006
As I pour this an enticing, fruity, sweet aroma reminiscent of apples and pears wafts to my nostrils. The beer is a lightly hazy copper color that is topped by a frothy, three-finger thick, tan colored head. A sweet malty aroma rounds out the fruit notes found up front. Lightly spicy aromatics ephemerally dance along the tastebuds, but can't quite seem to stick. There is a really nice bready note to this beer; it is a mix of Maillard crust components, a bit of biscuit and a toasted grain note. Interestingly enough there is not much funk to the nose; perhaps a light musty note and a touch of sharp Brett character, but not nearly as much as I was expecting.

The taste is much drier than I was expecting, but it does have that solid bready maltiness that was found in the aroma. The beer finishes with a light tart note that makes me think of apples. Actually there is a really good fruit character here, despite the dryness, this beer has a vibrant fruitiness to it that is predominantly apple like, but also has notes of pear and perhaps a hint of strawberry as well. AS the beer warms up it becomes a bit sweeter, which tends to accentuate the fruit character. The beer has a medium full palate to it; it tends to coat the mouth just a bit.

The typical Brett notes? Well there is a bit of a cotton mouth note in the finish. I wonder when the Brett was used, as a primary fermentation agent the character is a bit different than when it takes hold later on in a fermentation. I really am curious what the Brett strain used was, and when it was used. I really am looking forward to how this ages. I certainly expect it to get more characterful with age.

Pours from the 750ml bottle a bright golden yellow with a nice bubbly head on top. Looks good in the glass and tempts me to explore further. Aroma pops of Brett with an underlying bright fruity character - peach, citrusy. There's a suprising amount of hops present here, citric, oily and slightly piney as well with a light caramel glaze. An intriguing nose leads this one off that ends up being quite nice if I say so myself.

First sip brings a slightly grainy caramelized maltiness with a tropical, citric frutiness about it. Slighty sour Brett accents present throughout add a really nice dimension to the beer. Resinous, citric hops hit on the way down with a shallow bitterness. Spicy accents with a hint of vanilla and a clean finish.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with a steady carbonation...dances across the tongue with ease. Ultimately refreshing, chalk up another fine brew for both Pizza Port and Russian River. A truly tasty conglomeration. I hope to see more beers and brewers experimenting like this more often.